Sunday night, the Sony PlayStation store shut down and immediately, the hacker group called Lizard Squad took responsibility for the act. They also disrupted Xbox Live two nights before.
On the group's Twitter account, there is a post that reads, "PSN Login #offline #LizardSquad."
The message was posted right after the PlayStation Network was shut down. However, the PlayStation Knowledge Center didn't immediately know about this and even had their status to "online." It was only when users started complaining and reporting about the logging in issues that the company confirmed a breach.
A bit later, visitors entering the PlayStation store site were greeted with a message that said, "Page Not Found! It's not you. It's the internet's fault."
It was clear that the Lizard Squad was toying around with Sony.
The Lizard Squad is known for DDOS attacks, a process that overloads the system until it shuts down. It has attacked several targets in the past including Twitch, EA Games, "Destiny" and "World of Warcraft." Since the recent Sony attack, their Twitter account has been suspended. One of their last tweets said that the recent attack was just a "small dose" of what's going to happen on Christmas day.
This isn't the first cyber-attack that Sony had to face. Last month, Sony was attacked and it resulted to the dissemination of unreleased movies and celebrity personal information over the Internet. For that one, a group called Guardians of Peace was responsible for the attack. They froze Sony's computer systems and then posted a message that said they would release "top secrets" unless their requestst are met.
There are suspicions that the cyber-attack was done in behalf of North Korea and also, that the attack came from China. The suspicion stems from a Sony Pictures movie "The Interview," due for release this month, to which the North Korean government expressly showed disapproval.
"The Interview" is about two journalists recruited by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. According to a letter from the North Korean government, this movie sponsors terrorism and an act of war.
North Korea has since denied any involvement with the cyber-attacks. However, they did call the attack as "a righteous deed." It is clear that the PyongYang government does have an issue with Sony Entertainment after all.
